1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to adaptive control of electronic, electromechanical and mechanical devices. More particularly, it relates to techniques for managing devices that are controlled using computer software.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer controlled systems and devices are ubiquitous in today's society and there has been a long-felt need to optimize their operation to adapt to the needs of the individuals who use them. One such class of devices in which adaptive control is needed is portable battery powered devices. With the proliferation of battery powered devices, power management has become critical to the success of such products. Power drain effects all aspects of operation: size, weight, battery life. Adequately managing power allows for use of smaller and lighter batteries, other advanced power technologies (e.g., fuel cells, etc.), and other alternative portable power sources, each of which can support longer periods of operation of the devices. Although power management can be accomplished according to many approaches, none are known that are adaptive to a user's patterns of use or robust enough to optimize the power management in the presence of noise.
Designers of today's electronic devices attempt to reduce power consumption by concentrating their efforts on reducing the power drain required by the device or by using background processing tasks to determine if certain subsystems within the electronic device can be powered down. These devices often are described as being adaptive, since they feed back to a power management algorithm information concerning the power usage of the device to determine new values for adjustable power settings. However, the degree of adaptability of those device is very low since they employ only a mere feed back loop that does not account for system noise or provide control in dynamic situations.
Accordingly, there is a need for power management techniques that take into account system noise, user preferences, and patterns of use of the device. Power management systems are but one class of systems that are in need of adaptive control techniques. Many other types of systems can benefit from adaptive control techniques.